Writing in the 21st Century Needs More Programming


Science can inform all aspects of life. The process of writing itself has psychological aspects. It makes psychological a difference if you write: "A happens, because B happened" or (better) "When B happened then A happens" ….

One thing is clear to me, in writing it is not so important to use grammar correctly, but express yourself as good as possible. It's easier to write about things that matter for those who care, but you want a one to many conversation and you don't know the audience - so, it is still kind of unnatural.

What are you simulating when writing?

Expressing yourself about something you know you need to find words and constructions that grammar guardians might find wrong.  Or even new languages - like the language of mathematics. A mathematical expression (symbols) can tell you a lot about a principal real behavior, but its operational semantics (its implementation) tells you more.

Simulations can explain things to people, who are not so artistic in understanding and manipulating expressions, like complex formulae.

Documents that are programs make things clearer

In language is too clumsy an instrument I have taken the example of a term sheet of a financial instrument and bring its into a form that is understandable and computational.

A symbolic expression can be a great compression of a complex i/o behavior, but it my also form the way you think about the problem. If you search for elegance, you may look for closed form solutions and simplify the problem instead of the model.

With programs you can go beyond.

Kids shall learn programming

Kids often explain that they have seen things that a friend has seen and told them and do not understand that others do not have the same knowledge. We often laugh at them, but don't we often use expressions that our  readers have no way of knowing? Again, simulations tell more.

Therefore it is my strong belief that children shall learn language and programming.

Later they can learn languages of physics, mathematics, biology, … if required. And they will understand that those languages shall have freedom and knowledge.

Programs can even make fairy tales: functional goats, …, Oh sorry, the goats again.

In search of the deepest, most insightful, most informative understanding of the world and ourselves - we shall rely on writing and a lot of
programming.

Picture from sehfelder